Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, California, USA, on Monday, April 29, 2024.
Eric Thayer | Bloomberg |
Sony’s Chief financial officer said on Wednesday that the Japanese technology and media giant wouldn’t reconsider a brand new offer for the film and tv production group Outstanding Global.
Sony currently has no plans to submit a revised offer for Paramount, said Hiroki Totoki, the corporate’s chief financial officer.
Responding to an issue during Sony’s first-quarter earnings presentation, Totoki said an acquisition of Paramount “does not fit well with our strategy.”
“If we had to acquire Paramount entirely, it would be quite risky because it might not fit well into our capital allocation structure,” he added.
Totoki’s comments confirm reports in Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei on Tuesday that Sony had decided to not make a brand new bid for Paramount Global after independent film studio Skydance Media struck a deal to amass the media giant.
Paramount Global, considered one of Hollywood’s oldest studios and residential to mega media franchises corresponding to “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “The Godfather,” ended months of negotiations by agreeing to merge with Skydance.
In a two-stage deal, Skydance and partners including RedBird Capital Partners and KKR agreed to take a position greater than $8 billion in Paramount and acquire National Amusements, which has an enterprise value of $2.4 billion, including $1.7 billion in equity.
Sony and personal equity giant Apollo Global Management had previously expressed interest in acquiring Paramount for around $26 billion; CNBC first reported on the talks in May.
At that point, Paramount was still considering a suggestion from Skydance Media, owned by US film producer David Ellison, which was backed by private equity firms RedBird Capital Partners and KKR.
Later that month, CNBC’s David Faber reported that Sony was reconsidering its bid for Paramount. The company had previously also reported a 7% decline in earnings for fiscal 2023 as a consequence of weakness in its financial services division.
The deal between Paramount and Skydance ended the powerful Redstone family’s historic control over Paramount.
The Redstones have been majority shareholders in Paramount since media magnate Sumner Redstone bought the corporate in 1994. Since her father’s death in 2020, Sumner’s daughter Shari Redstone has run the corporate.
